Sewing machine attachment for fixing a permanent crease in garments



May 23, 1939. n SEGELN ET AL 2,159,743

. SEWING MACHINE ATTACHMENT FOR FIXING A PERMANENT GREASE IN GARMENTS Filed March 23, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet l FEL.

.1i Y 'By I 4 5am/10N 5:66AM/ 12- l ATTORNEY Patented May 23, 1939 thereof which follows, accompanying drawings in UNITED STATES PATENT oFFicE David Segelin and Solomon Segelin, Rochester, N. Y.

Application March 23, 1936, Serial No. 70,278

7 Claims.

This invention relates to attachments for sewing machines and has for its objects to provide an attachment with which a crease maybe per- `manently fixed in the fabric of a garment.

Another object of this invention is to provide an attachment for sewing machines with which the fabric of the garment is guided while the tape for fixing the crease is sewed to the fabric parallel to the crease and onto one side thereof.

A further object of this invention is to provide a novel form of tape guide for the attachment.

All these and other objects and attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description reference being had to the which: Figure 1 is a top plan view of the head and `Work plate of a blind stitch sewing machine with invention disclosed ledge has been sewed in the novel attachment mounted thereon. Figure 2 is a front elevation thereof. Figure 3 is a side elevation thereof.

l Figure 4 is a detail top plan view of the channel guide and guide finger used in guiding the fabric below the needle of the sewing machine.

l Figure 5 is a side elevation thereof.

Figure 6 is afront elevation thereof.

Figure 7 is a detail perspective view of the tape and fabric guide for guiding the tape and fabric to the point where the tape is sewed to the ifabric.

Figure 8 is a vertical sectional View of the channel gui-de illustrated in Figures 4 to 6 illustrating the manner in which one edge of the tape is sewed to thefabric as it passes thru the channel guide. l

Figure 9 is a vertical channel guide illustrating the manner in which the other edge of the tape is sewed to the fabric as it passes thru the channel guide after one place and the fabric for the sewing of the sectional view of the has been turned around other edge. p In the several gures of the drawings like reference numerals indicate like parts.

The attachment for sewing machines, forming the subject matter of our present invention, is especially adapted for use in providing permanent creases in garments in accordance with the in our PatentfNo. 2,905,483. Our present invention makesit possible to permanently and accurately X this crease at a miniimum expense so that it will add but little to the cost of manufacture ofthe garment.

In fixing a crease, a tape is sewed to the back of the fabric so that the width of the tape bridges the groove formed at the back of the crease and thus keeps the crease from being straightened when the fabric is tensioned. In order to make the fixed crease appear natural it is important that a narrow tape be used so as not to increase the stiffness of the fabric at the crease or unnaturally expand the crease and thus impair the sharpness of the crease.

Using a narrow tape makes it imperative to accurately guide the fabric and the tape so as to bring them together at the sewing point in such a manner that the tape uniformly bridges the back of the crease the full length thereof.

The attachment comprises in combination a preliminary fabric guide, a tape guide and a nal fabric guide, all of which cooperate to bring together and guide the tape and fabric in a predetermined position, and hold them in this position while the stitching operation takes place.

The sewing machine to which the attachment is mounted, as shown in the figures of the drawings, is a blind stitch sewingmachine with a head l in which is journaled the shaft 2. 'I'his shaft is oscillated by a suitable mechanism (not shown) and hasmounted thereon the needle carrier or arm 43. The needle carrier is thus oscillated by the shaft 2 and causes its needle 4 to swing back and forth over the presser foot 5. The presser foot is cut out to provide a substantially central elongated opening 6 therein thru which the fabric is forced to have the needle 4 pass thru the pro` jecting portion of the fabric at a predetermined depth below the surface thereof. This is accomplished by the oscillating ridge forming member 'I which is carried on the shaft 8 andoscillates back and forth so as to have its top oscillate in the opening of the presser foot and raise a small portion of the fabric above the presser foot for each stitch made by the needle 4. A spring pressed finger 9 projects over the opening in the presser foot and forces the fabric against the top of the ridge forming member to hold it in contact therewith.

A work clamp I0 is mounted to rock on the arm Il and the spring l2 holds this work clamp yieldingly. against the serrated feeder arm I3. 'I'.he forward portion of the work clamp I0 is bifurcated and the ridge forming member 1 projects thru this bifurcated portion as illustrated in Figures 3, 5 and 6. The rearward portion of the work clamp is channeled with the channel I4 parallel to the ridge forming member but to one side thereof as illustrated in Figures 6, 8 and 9. When a creased fabric is therefore fed over the work clamp so that the crease passes thru the channel thereof, the ridge forming member operates to raise the fabric to one side of the crease as illustrated in Figures 8 and 9 to have the needle 4 sew thru the raised portion of the fabric and the portion of the tape located over it, as will hereinafter be described.

The garment is prepared by pressing or ironing the crease into it and to make it permanent the tape is sewed first to one side and then the other side of the back of this crease at points uniformly spaced from the edge thereof. The rst operation to accomplish this result is to feed the tape and the garment to the sewing point of the machine so that the tape is sewed to one side of the crease in the garment as illustrated in Figure 8 in which reference numeral I5 indicates the tape and reference numeral I6 the fabric with the crease formed therein.

For this purpose the tape I5 is guided by the tape guide I'I which comprises a flat sleeve carried at the end of the horizontal bracket I8. This bracket is pivoted at I9 to the bracket 20 which in turn is adjustably clamped to the work table 2I of the sewing machine. The bracket is adjustably clamped to the work table so that the tape guide II may be adjusted to guide the tape passing therethru to meet the fabric in a predetermined position with relation to the crease ISA in the fabric and have the tape correspondingly sewed to the fabric. The tubular tape guide is supplemented by the guide bracket 22 which is mounted on and projects above the sewing machine head I. In this guide bracket are three guide slots 24, 25 and 26 which are suitably spaced to have the tape pass from the rear of the bracket thru the slot v2li to the front thereof and down in front of the bracket to the slot 25 and thru this slot to the rear of the bracket and down the rear of the bracket and thru the slot 2E away from the bracket to the rear of the guide sleeve I1 and thru the guide sleeve tc Within a short distance of the sewing point, all as shown in Figure 3.

A spring pressed finger 21 is mounted on the back of the bracket so as to yieldingly contact the tape as it travels at the back of the bracket between the slots 25 and 26 in order to produce a tension on the tape as it is fed to the sewing point.

Associated with the tape guide sleeve I1 is the crease guide 28 which comprises a narrow longitudinally extending vertical ange which is separately held so as to project downwardly from the bottom of the guide sleeve and forwardly thereof. This guide flange is provided at the end of a bracket 29 which is adjustably clamped to the bracket I8 by means of the clamping screw 3l] which passes thru the slotted end thereof. The crease guide flange 28 is supplemented by a yielding guide plate 3| which is provided with a guide groove 32 to have the guide flange normally project thereinto as illustrated in Figures 1,2 and 7. The guide plate is mounted on a spring arm 33 having its coiled end 34 anchored to the under side of the work table 2 I. The spring arm is offset as illustrated in Figures 2 and '7 so as to yieldingly hold the guide plate carried thereby at substantially the same elevation as the surface of the work table 2l and exert a yielding pressure against the under side of the fabric when the fabric is placed between the guide plate and the guide flange 28 to hold the crease of the fabric in the groove 32 of the guide plate with the crease guide 23 extending into the crease to keep it lined up thereon. In this way the crease of the fabric is kept in perfect alignment with the tape as both tape and fabric are fed to the sewing point under the sewing head.

The combined tape and garment guide is necessary when the first edge of the tape is being sewed to the side of the crease in order to keep this sewed edge uniformly spaced from the edge of the crease and perfectly parallel thereto. Without the guiding means it has been found impossible for any operator to sew the tape accurately and uniformly to the fabric with relation to the crease provided therein. Furthermore without the combined tape and fabric guide the sewing operation would be so slow as to make the fixing of the crease almost prohibitive in cost.

The actual forming of a crease preparatory to the fixing of it by means of a tape may be done away with until after the tape is sewed to the fabric by marking the fabric with a line at the point where the crease is to be formed. In that case the fabric is fed over the guide plate with the marked line located in the guide groove and the crease guide forcing the fabric into the guide groove at the marked line to provide a temporary crease in the fabric until the tape is sewed thereto. After that is done the crease may be permanently pressed or ironed into the garment along the middle of the tape sewed over the line.

In the combined feeding of the tape and fabric to the sewing point the tape is located over the crease as illustrated in Figure 8 with the crease passing thru the channeled portion of the work clamp Iii. As above described the ridge forming member 'I raises a portion of the fabric with the tape to one side of the crease so that the needle 4 may pass thru the tape and the surface of the raised portion of the fabric and sew the tape to the fabric with a so-called blind stitch to one side of the crease. After one edge of the tape is sewed to the fabric in this manner along the entire length of the crease ISA and to one side thereof the other edge of the tape is sewed to the other side of the crease.

For this purpose the tape guide, crease guide and fabric guide are dispensed with and replaced by a guide nger 35. This guide finger is removably mounted on the arm 35 which in turn is mounted to swing on the work table 2 I. To make room for the spring finger the tape guide with the crease guide is swung away from in front of the head cf the sewing machine into the dotted line position illustrated in Figure 1 and the fabricguide is depressed into the dotted line position illustrated in Figure 2 to have the lug 31 engage the spring arm 33 thereof and hold the fabric guide inthe dotted line position spaced from the presser foot of the sewing machine. In this way room is made for the arm 35 to swing from the full line position to the dotted line position in Figure l with the angular guide finger 35 turned to have its free end project into the channel of the work clamp I0 as illustrated in Figures 4, 5, 6 and 9.

The fabric with the tape sewed to one side of the crease is then fed to the work clamp with the guide finger extending into the crease so as to hold the crease in the channeled portion of the work clamp Ill in a predetermined relation to the edge of the tape which has been previously sewed to the fabric. This is illustrated in Figure 9. While passing over the work clamp and thru the work clamp channel the tape and the fabric are raised by the ridge forming member to have the needle pass thru the free edge of the tape and the surface of the fabric to sew this edge of the tape substantially the same distance from the crease as the edge of the tape on the opposite side of the crease.

We claim:

` l. An attachment for sewing machines having a presser foot and an opening in the presser foot, a bifurcated Work clamp located on the under side of said presser foot, a ridge forming member movable in the bifurcation of said Work clamp and projecting thru the opening in said presser foot, a channel in said Work clamp forming a continuation of the bifurcation thereof and a nger mounted to longitudinally project into said channel and hold the fabric in the channel.

2. An attachment for sewing machines as set forth in claim l including a crease forming guide located in frontof said channel and in line there- With to depress `the fabric in a lineWith said channel and cause the crease formed thereby to l feed into said channel.

3. An attachment for sewing machines having a presser foot and a channeled Work clamp cooperating withV the bottom thereof, a fabric guide plate mounted in front of said presser foot, a channel in the surface of said fabric guide plate in line With the channel in said Work clamp, a

guide flange located above said channel in said fabric guide plate to force the fabric into said 1 channel and form a crease therein in line with said channel in said Work clamp.

4. An attachment for sewing machines having a presser foot, the combination of a work clamp .having a channel therein, a guide flange mounted in front of said channel and in line with said channel, a sleeve guide located above said guide flange parallel thereto, said guide flange being adapted to depress the fabric and form a crease therein and cause said crease to pass thru the channel in said Work clamp, said sleeve guide being adapted to guide a tape therethru to uniformly extend to either side of the back of the crease in its passage thru the channel of the feed plate.

5. An attachment for sewing machines having a presser foot and a Work table to one side of said presser foot, comprising an arm carried by said work table and projecting toward said presser foot, a guide flange carried by said arm and extending under said presser foot and a sleeve guide carried by said arm and located above said guide flange parallel thereto and extending under said presser foot above said guide flange.

6. An attachment for sewing machines having a presser foot and a Work table to one side of said presser foot, comprising an arm carried by said Work table and projecting toward said presser foot, a guide flange carried by said arm and extending under said presser foot and a sleeve guide carried by said arm and located above said guide flange parallel thereto and extending under said presser foot above said guide flange, and means for adjusting said guide ange with relation to said sleeve guide.

7. An attachment as set forth in claim 6 including a spring arm mounted to said work table, a guide plate carried by said spring arm, a guide groove in said guide plate, said guide plate being held by said spring arm to have said guide flange project into said guide groove so as to yieldinglyl hold the fabric placed over the guide plate against said guide flange and cause said guide flange to force the fabric into the groove of said guide plate.

DAVID SEGELIN. SOLOMON SEGELIN. 

